Connecticut Medical Malpractice: Reasons For Diagnostic Error

Diagnostic errors, including delayed diagnosis or wrong diagnosis, can have very serious and significant outcomes depending on the diagnosis, including death. In Connecticut, anything that deviates from the standard of medical care, could be considered medical malpractice. There are a few common ways that you or a loved one could get a diagnostic error. 

• Poor or lacking communication. When patients are transferred to different departments in a hospital or if a patient is being transferred from a hospital to another healthcare facility, or any number of transfer combinations, there is a great risk that crucial medial information may not travel with the patient. 
• Limited time to diagnose. Whether it be the provider or the patient, feeling rushed in a healthcare setting is common. Providers can feel rushed by a full waiting room, treating many patients at once, feeling like patients must discharge in a certain amount of time, among others. Patients may not feel like they can adequately describe their symptoms in this time frame. 
• No system for feedback. When a physician makes a diagnosis and either discharges or transfers a patient, there is no way for them to know if their initial diagnosis was changed. As a result, physicians may keep making the same diagnostic error without ever learning from their mistake. 

If you or a loved one experienced a diagnostic error it may be Connecticut medical malpractice. Contact our office immediately to discuss your injuries. Our team is experienced at cases like this and includes doctor/attorney, Bob Messey, and nurse/attorney, Gayle Sullivan.